1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a device for manufacturing raw liquid confection mixtures, which has at least one dosing device for supplying sugar-containing dry components and liquid components, as well as a mixing device.
2. Description of Related Art
The manufacture of raw confection mixtures for hard candy, caramel toffee candies, and soft caramel is generally done in so-called boiling systems, which consist of dissolving and mixing devices with a subsequently connected evaporator system.
In these types of systems, a dry component containing sugar is dissolved in water, where other components then can also be added to this solution in a mixing device. The other components can be, for example, glucose, milk modifications, starch and other hydrocolloids.
In a mixture of this type, the water is then drawn off again in evaporator devices, where the temperature of the condensed mixture must remain so high that the sugar is still dissolved even when the water content has been reduced and that the sugar is not crystallizing out. The temperature must be maintained so as to prevent any undesired crystallization in the subsequent cooling off and shaping of the candy.
The process described up to this point requires expensive vaporization systems, so that the vaporization of these types of mixtures containing sugar is very problematic, since sugar and possibly other additives such as starch, milk proteins, etc., can adhere over time to the heat-transferring surfaces in the vaporization system, which considerably impairs the transfer of heat.
In addition, this vaporization system then leads to the danger of overheating, so that the sugar is possibly caramelized and forms hard coatings, which can then only be removed at considerable expense. Also, in the process, the raw confection mixture can also become damaged, particularly in its taste, due to the temperatures that are too high.
The purpose of the invention presented here is thus to present a device and a process for manufacturing raw liquid confection mixtures, in which the described set of problems does not occur.
The purpose is achieved according to the invention in that in a device such as the one indicated above, the mixing device provided is a shearing mixer, in which the components are stirred intensively by a rotor, so that they then are liquefied because of the frictional heat that results.
The invention is based on the discovery that in the process that has been applied until now, the liquid is also needed for the most part in order to be able to cause a heat transfer to the individual parts of the dry components. A sugar that has only a little water mixed in it is thus, for example, only slightly moistened, but the water cannot guarantee a heat transfer to individual sugar crystals. By using a shearing mixer, by comparison, the friction is generated directly on the""sugar crystal and the frictional heat that occurs there then leads directly to a liquefication of the sugar crystal.
The invention thus has the advantage that it is no longer necessary to add, to the dry components containing sugar, a lot of water that must later be evaporated again at great expense. Thus, on the one hand, the high-energy expense for the water evaporation is rendered unnecessary. In addition, the problems described above within the evaporator systems no longer occur. The manufacture of raw liquid confection mixtures is thus possible in a simpler and more cost-effective way.
For the shearing mixer, a construction that has proven to be especially favorable is one having a housing in which the rotor is provided. This rotor is then equipped with mixing blades that guide the components present in the shearing mixer in the axial direction, whereby the blades mesh with prong elements in a comb-like manner to form milling fissures at their outer radial ends. The prong elements are arranged in a ring-shaped manner on the inner wall of the housing projecting radially to the inside. A shearing mixer of this type is described, for example, in the German patent DE-PS 43 13 149.
A shearing mixer of this type can then also have dried and liquid components flowing through it continuously, such that it then advantageously has a component feeder zone in a region that is in the front in the flow direction and an outlet in a rear region in the flow direction. The rotor is then provided in the intermediate area.
For the dry components, a pre-mixer which sufficiently homogenizes the dried components can be connected in front of the shearing mixer.
In order to keep the components present in the shearing mixer at the necessary temperature, a special regulation device is provided. This device regulates the rotational speed of the rotor as a function of the temperature in the shearing mixer. When the temperature is dropping, the rotational speed is increased, and thus additional frictional heat or shearing energy is supplied to the components, so that the temperature increases again. When the temperatures are correspondingly too high, the rotational speed of the rotor is decreased.
It has proven to be favorable to connect a centrifugal pump wheel after the rotor, so that a pressure increase that promotes the conveyance of the raw liquid confection mixture is achieved.
In addition, it is also proposed to connect an intermediate container, in which a partial vacuum is admitted, after the shearing mixer. The partial vacuum that is prevalent here can evaporate water that is still contained in excess in the raw confection mixture evaporated using the heat that is stored in the raw confection mixture. The raw confection mixture can then be further processed in an exactly desired consistency.
The process described here is also especially suitable for reprocessing rejected products. For this, merely that quantity of liquid is added back into the broken confection, which had evaporated out of the raw confection mixture during the final shaping of candies. Complete dissolving of the confection rejects in liquid, which was customary until now, thus becomes unnecessary.
In the manufacturing of fresh products, the device described here and the process that accompanies it also has the advantage that flavoring and coloring agents can be added directly in the single mixing operation, without the need to provide separate mixing operations and mixing devices for this. It should otherwise also be mentioned that it could also be sometimes sufficient to add to the solids only the liquid flavors and coloring agents, and the glucose portion that to a certain extent contains water, in order to ensure the water content for the finished raw confection mixture.
Additional advantages and characteristics of the invention result from the following description of an embodiment example.